It has taken me a while but here is another observation i had while visiting the north in January. Now, as i am preparing to teach on the early church found in Acts, the depth and importance of what i saw and felt seem somehow deeper, more real.
We in the west; Evangelical, wealthy, non-persecuted, comfortable, over burdened with resources and luxery tend to see ourselves as ‘the latest greatest’ Christianity. We look back and say, ‘sure we are a continuation of the past church, but instead of looking at ourselves as part of the historic early church tethered and connected to not just the founder of the church, but to our church fathers, but to the earliest church in the Mediterranean, and further still, we are connected to first church. Reading Acts again after visiting our Coptic brothers has caused me pause and some amount of sadness–or jealousy of those who are so deeply connected to not only their past but to one another.
The Coptic church holds dearly, tenaciously holds on these connections. Through icons, relics, holy sites and rituals the entire church finds strength and comfort from tracing and remembering their connection to the past. To martyrs, to fathers, to miracles. Check out the story of Simon the Tanner from the 10th century, of God moving a mountain and saving all the Coptic Christians and converting the ruling Caliph al-Muizz who basically told the Pope of the day, after hearing, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you”, from Mathew 17, it is reported he said, “What sayest thou concerning this word? Is it your gospel or not?” The patriarch answered “Yes, it is in it.” and the rest of the story is history—-the Coptics history, OUR history. (https://copticcrew.com/pages/st-simon-the-tanner).
And yet, we fat skeptics, brush off and deflect, discredit and avoid such acts of faith.
Are we not surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses? Did not/does not our God still perform miracles? Even if you don’t believe He still does, can we not find courage, strength and comfort knowing He did?
Maybe as we seek for connection in our families, our communities, our churches and our lands, we can also look back and find strength, connected to those who have gone before.
Kevin & Cami in Southern Africa 